Method of Treating a Liquid with Nanobubbles

ABSTRACT

A method of treating a liquid by creating nanobubbles of a desired gas within a target liquid and allowing the desired gas to react with a target component of the target liquid. The desired gas can be selected to be reactive with the target component, and a desired liquid can be formed after the desired gas reacts with the target component.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S.Serial No. 15/977,311 filed on May 11, 2018 that claims priority to U.S.Serial No. 62/602,958 filed on May 12, 2017, both of which areincorporated herein by this reference in their entireties.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to a method for treating aliquid with nanobubbles for the purpose of removing impurities orotherwise altering its chemical composition.

BACKGROUND

Films may be used in industry to package, wrap, label, and/or protectconsumable and It is often desirable to treat a liquid in order toadjust or alter its chemical composition. Impurities may need to beremoved from the liquid, or an increased concentration of a dissolvedsolute may be desired.

A typical example of such an application is wastewater treatment. It isdesirable to remove impurities to make water potable or otherwiseusable.

The present disclosure relates to a method for treating a liquid withnanobubbles for the purpose of removing impurities or otherwise alteringits chemical composition.

Bubbles are gas filled cavities that can form in liquids or solids. Thepresent disclosure deals with bubbles in liquids and/or substances thatbehave somewhat like liquids, such as emulsions or gels. For the sake ofbrevity, this disclosure shall intend for the term liquid to includeliquids, gels, emulsions, or other fluid substances that will take theshape of their container without substantially expanding in volume to doso.

The terms microbubbles and nanobubbles have been used for extremelysmall bubbles. For the purposes of this disclosure, the term nanobubbleshall be used to describe any bubble less than one micron (µ) or 1000nanometers (nm).

Recent improvements have led to feasible production of nanobubbles ofdesired characteristics. The present disclosure relates to a method forusing specific nanobubbles to purify, or otherwise change thecomposition of a liquid.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Before explaining the present disclosure in detail, it is to beunderstood that the disclosure is not limited to the specifics ofparticular embodiments as described and that it can be practiced,constructed, or carried out in various ways.

While embodiments of the disclosure have been shown and described,modifications thereof can be made by one skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and teachings of the disclosure. Theembodiments described herein are exemplary only and are not intended tobe limiting.

Specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not tobe interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis of the claims and as arepresentative basis for teaching persons having ordinary skill in theart to variously employ the present embodiments. Many variations andmodifications of embodiments disclosed herein are possible and arewithin the scope of the present disclosure.

Where numerical ranges or limitations are expressly stated, such expressranges or limitations should be understood to include iterative rangesor limitations of like magnitude falling within the expressly statedranges or limitations.

The use of the word “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with the term“comprising” in the claims and/or the specification may mean “one,” butit is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,”and “one or more than one.”

The use of the term “optionally” with respect to any element of a claimis intended to mean that the subject element is required, oralternatively, is not required. Both alternatives are intended to bewithin the scope of the claim. Use of broader terms such as comprises,includes, having, etc. should be understood to provide support fornarrower terms such as consisting of, consisting essentially of,comprised substantially of, and the like.

Accordingly, the scope of protection is not limited by the descriptionherein, but is only limited by the claims which follow, encompassing allequivalents of the subject matter of the claims. Each and every claim ishereby incorporated into the specification as an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. Thus, the claims are a further description and arean addition to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

The inclusion or discussion of a reference is not an admission that itis prior art to the present disclosure, especially any reference thatmay have a publication date after the priority date of this application.The disclosures of all patents, patent applications, and publicationscited herein are hereby incorporated by reference, to the extent theyprovide background knowledge; or exemplary, procedural or other detailssupplementary to those set forth herein.

The embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a methodfor treating a liquid with nanobubbles for the purpose of removingimpurities or otherwise altering its chemical composition.

A method of treating a liquid by creating nanobubbles of a desired gaswithin a target liquid and allowing the desired gas to react with atarget component of the target liquid. The desired gas can be selectedto be reactive with the target component, and a desired liquid can beformed after the desired gas reacts with the target component.

Bubbles are cavities of gas within liquids and solids. Large bubbleswithin liquid typically rise rapidly and directly to the surface.Nanobubbles are very small bubbles that have diameters of less than 1micron (µ). Nanobubbles can be stable for long periods of time within aliquid and do not rapidly rise to the surface as do larger bubbles dueto a lesser degree of buoyancy and due to Brownian motion effects.

As the internal pressure of a bubble is dependent upon the bubblediameter, smaller bubbles have higher internal pressure and can releasegas into the surrounding liquid. Nanobubbles have a tendency towardsself-organization in much the same way as charged oil-water emulsions,colloids, and nanoparticles. This is due to a combination of theirnegative charge and long-range attraction.

Because of these characteristics of nanobubbles, a desired gas can beintroduced to a liquid, which then is stable until finding a targetcomponent to react with. Because of the small size of the nanobubbles, amuch greater surface area of the bubbles per a given volume is realized,thus providing a large area for reactions to occur between the desiredgas and the target component.

The method can be implemented to purify water, adjust the chemicalconcentration of a liquid, remove impurities, and the like.

In embodiments, the desired gas reacts with the target component to forma potable component, a chemically stable component, or a precipitate.

The method can also include the steps of filtering the target liquidprior to creating nanobubbles of a desired gas within the target liquidand filtering the desired liquid after introducing the nanobubbles. Anyformed precipitate can be removed by this filtering process.

Exemplary desired gases include, but are not limited to: ammonia, ozone,chlorine, sulfur dioxide, a carbonate, an oxide, or carbon dioxide.Gases can be selected based upon their reactivity with the targetcomponent in the target liquid. Any gas appropriate to the chosenapplication can be selected by persons having ordinary skill in the art.

Exemplary target components include, but are not limited to: amonovalent salt, a divalent salt, other salts, a chloride, a nitrate, anitrite, a fluoride, a bromide, a phosphate, a sulfate, a volatileorganic chemical (VOC), mercury, or a metal.

A waste water treatment example is provided below:

Waste water from various sources, such as effluent generated by oil andgas operations can be treated using the method of the presentdisclosure.

In this embodiment, the target liquid (effluent) can be filtered priorto the introduction of nanobubbles. First, a shaker can be employed toremove large particles or clumps of material. Then one or more hydrocyclone separators can be employed to remove particles greater than 80to 100 microns in size.

In shakers, the fluid is fed over a mesh screen whereby the fluid passesthrough and particles of a great size are retrained by the mesh screenfor disposal.

In hydro cyclone separators, a liquid stream is fed tangentially into anupper cylindrical portion where the liquid is accelerated in a spiral asthe liquid flows through a conical lower portion. As the liquid spirals,centrifugal forces draw the denser components to the outer portion ofthe rotating column of liquid and the less dense components of theliquid migrate to a central column area. The dense components aredischarged through a lower underflow opening in the conical lowerportion and the less dense components are passed upwardly through acentrally located overflow opening or outlet.

After initial filtration, nanobubbles with a desired gas are introducedinto the solution to react with target components and form a precipitatethat drops out of solution or react with flocculate as desired. Theprecipitate or flocculate can then be coagulated using any means knownto persons having ordinary skill in the art.

The effluent can be again filtered to remove the coagulatedprecipitate/flocculant, thereby resulting in a desired liquid.

While the present disclosure emphasizes the embodiments, it should beunderstood that within the scope of the appended claims, the disclosuremight be embodied other than as specifically described herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of treating a liquid comprising: a.creating nanobubbles of the desired gas within the liquid; b.flocculating; c. allowing the desired gas to chemically react with atarget component of the liquid; and d. forming, subsequent to theallowing, at least a precipitate and a desired liquid, wherein thenanobubbles of the desired gas optionally have a charge.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein the desired gas chemically reacts with the targetcomponent to form a potable component.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe desired gas chemically reacts with the target component to form achemically stable component.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising filtering the liquid prior to the creating nanobubbles of thedesired gas within the liquid.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising filtering the desired liquid.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the target component comprises: a. a monovalent salt; b. adivalent salt; c. a chloride; d. a nitrate or nitrite; e. a halide; f. aphosphate; g. a sulfate; h. a volatile organic chemical (VOC); i.mercury; or j. a metal.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the desiredgas comprises: a. ammonia; b. ozone; c. chlorine or an oxide d. sulfurdioxide or carbon dioxide; e. a carbonate or an oxide; or f. carbondioxide.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising charging aprecursor of the desired liquid with an opposite charge of the charge ofthe nanobubbles.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising shakingwith one or more shakers to remove particles and/or clumps in the liquidto yield the desired liquid or a precursor thereof.
 10. The method ofclaim 9, further comprising hydrocycloning the precursor with one ormore hydrocyclone separators to yield a refinement of the precursor. 11.The method of claim 10, further comprising separating at least theprecipitate and coagulated flocculants from the refinement to yield thedesired liquid.
 12. The method of claim 141 wherein the desired liquidis potable.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the refinement comprisesat least 95% turbidity removal.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein theflocculating comprises using polyaluminum chloride and sodium oleate.15. The method of claim 1, wherein the flocculating comprises using atleast a polymer and a ferromagnetic material.
 16. The method of claim 1,further comprising recovering, subsequent at least to the flocculatingand the allowing, one or more flocculating and/or coagulating agentsused in the flocculating.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein therecovering further comprises agitating the liquid to form a suspensionwhere ferromagnetic particles and suspended solids exist separately. 18.The method of claim 17, wherein the recovering further comprisesremoving the ferromagnetic particles and the suspended solids.
 19. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the flocculating occurs during the creating.20. The method of claim 1, wherein the flocculating occurs subsequent tothe creating.